In reply to: > > Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 19:37:30 -0400 > From: Dean Esmay <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: Re: gender differences > > In reading Dr. Heidecker's note, I find myself confused. The implication > appears to be that hunting done by men is largely unnecessary and that they > could bring in more food by gathering and chasing small game close at hand. > If this is so, why would men bother hunting? Would it not conflict with > Optimal Foraging Theory to have men regularly devoting large amounts of > time and energy, and taking significant risks, to chase after unreliable, > not-particularly-valuable food sources? I would submit an hypothesis, which is that not everything is done for Optimal Foraging reasons, either now or in the past. Hunting large beasts may have been done for primarily ritual and religious reasons, rather than for food. I note three things of interest: 1. Some of the oldest symbols to which we have access are the runic symbols, and one, the Aurochs (Ur-Ox) denotes the young man who has taken part in the successful hunt of a ferocious beast - the Aurochs. This marks his passage from boyhood to manhood and was a gender specific rite. [N.B. A secondary note - we presently lack such an established rite in our society, save when war visits our country. This lack may have important psychological and social consequences.] 2. The religion of Mithras and, before it Zoroaster, which was first associated with the middle east in the area of modern Iran, are connected with bull-slaying. Whatever the cosmological significance of the myth may be, the social significance seems to have been again to lay stress on male heroism. 3. No issue is guaranteed to arouse more social upheaval in the United Kindom than that of hunting, especially fox-hunting. Deaths occur at hunts, once only among the hunters, now also among the anti-hunting activists.Repeated attempts to ban hunting have failed despite governments of many political colourations. It is difficult not to accept that hunting still has a powerful significance for this country at least. I propose that hunting is of gender-specific, ritual importance, and that is the reason for its pursuit through the ages. Dick Bird Department of Psychology University of Northumbria Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST (0) 191 227 4521